(September 8, 2012 at 9:58 am)Sami_23 Wrote: Alright, so we all know the Taj Mahal was built by Muslims. It looks like a mosque, has a minaret, has the word 'Allah' at the top of it, has Quranic verses in literally every room inside. Not to mention there are mosques near it indicating a religious importance.
Of course, nowadays it's treated as a historical monument rather than a religious one. People have tried to take credit away from the Muslims by saying Hindus were the one who made it and also claiming it's a Hindu temple. These have been proven to be a hoax, thankfully.
In my opinion, it should be known as an Islamic architecture. Even Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom agree to that in their book 'The Art and Architecture of Islam (1994)'. There are more authors who agree to the fact that it should be known as an Islamic architecture.
So my question is, should celebrities/visitors be told that it's a religious palace rather than a historical palace? There is much more to the Taj Mahal than a man building it for his wife. It's a religious palace (infleunced by Islam) IMO.
There is no such thing as "Islamic architecture". The Koran has no manuals for designing any specific Islamic architecture style.
Religions in this world borrow architectural style from their ancestors or other culture.
Taj Mahal is not built using an Islamic architecture style, it is a Mughal architecture style, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal
Islam borrows architectural style from Sassanid, Byzantine and Spanish Germanic Visigoths and many other local cultures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_arc...Influences
In Central Java, a lot of the mosques are designed using a traditional Javanese architectural style, which originated from Hindi kingdom era. There is even a mosque in Kudus which has Hindi temple in it.
This just shows you how religion is really man-made. They copy human's ideas. If it really comes from the supposedly unique god, the religious architecture styles should be unique, not borrowing from human's ideas.
